Waterford Stanley Bilberry Development

Sully

Psychedelic wrote: »

I read on Ciara Conway's or Paudie Coffey's Twitter page last week that funding has been secured for the extension of the WSVR into the city centre.

Paudie Coffey, I read it myself on it.

tombliboo83

Great news for WSVR, very positive tourist attraction if a journey can be begin and end in the city. I visit twice a year with the family and it's a beautiful rail journey. I fear though that the bolster development will end up empty..so many empty developments but I hope they succeed

Green Hornet

tombliboo83 wrote: »

Great news for WSVR, very positive tourist attraction if a journey can be begin and end in the city. I visit twice a year with the family and it's a beautiful rail journey. I fear though that the bolster development will end up empty..so many empty developments but I hope they succeed

Better flattened to the ground than what's there at the moment though anyway. Anything is better than that eyesore.

How do they intend to get the railway around the estate that's built between the existing railway and Stanley though I wonder?

tombliboo83

Green Hornet wrote: »

Better flattened to the ground than what's there at the moment though anyway. Anything is better than that eyesore.

How do they intend to get the railway around the estate that's built between the existing railway and Stanley though I wonder?

The original route was to follow under the bridge at bottom of the hill but since the watergate apartment block was built on the old route the only thing I can see will work is to realign and go accross the road but I can't see this happening. It would take serious funding for WSVR to achieve this. I think it's a pity they don't look at extending Westwards towards Kilmac and Stradbally. So many ideas but such a lack of funding around

Junior

tombliboo83 wrote: »

The original route was to follow under the bridge at bottom of the hill but since the watergate apartment block was built on the old route the only thing I can see will work is to realign and go accross the road but I can't see this happening. It would take serious funding for WSVR to achieve this. I think it's a pity they don't look at extending Westwards towards Kilmac and Stradbally. So many ideas but such a lack of funding around

The Track is gone out at Kildermody where it crossed the road there, so no extension out towards kilmac would be possible.

merlante

I've often thought that in years to come, Mt. Congreve could be the Phoenix park of Waterford, if only it were more accessible. A light rail service running a few times a day would be great, especially if it could also service the WIT campus at Carriganore. Not sure how feasible this is routewise.

jo06555

mike65 wrote: »

Bump (and as referenced in the Whats the Paper Say thread)

http://www.bolstergroup.com/bolster-properties/latest-news/planning-permission-granted-for-380m-iconic-water-haven-riverside-development-in-waterford.html

Any ideas on when work will start or finish date i see demolition crowd have their banners up but does that mean they are working on it now.

STIG83

Junior wrote: »

The Track is gone out at Kildermody where it crossed the road there, so no extension out towards kilmac would be possible.

And plus the Union bridge at Kilmac on the old N25 is gone, would love to see a train cross over the viaduct in Kilmac but think ill dream on.
If i ever won the Euromillions id fund it.

jad2007

Work ongoing at the old Foundry site.

angry_fox

Other than apartments and offices what else is going in there?

O Riain

angry_fox wrote: »

Other than apartments and offices what else is going in there?

500 seated conference centre and AFAIK some retail space too

jayboi

O Riain wrote: »

500 seated conference centre and AFAIK some retail space too

Not to sound like an objector or anything but really the conference centre should be put in town somewhere maybe by the park or at the Waterside not that good to the town down in Bilberry as it would be somewhere else.

Anyway to cut a long story short I object to the conference centre.

O Riain

jayboi wrote: »

Not to sound like an objector or anything but really the conference centre should be put in town somewhere maybe by the park or at the Waterside not that good to the town down in Bilberry as it would be somewhere else.

Anyway to cut a long story short I object to the conference centre.

Grand so, find a site where you could fit a conference centre that size near the park and build it yourself....
This development is only two mins out of the city

jayboi

O Riain wrote: »

Grand so, find a site where you could fit a conference centre that size near the park and build it yourself....
This development is only two mins out of the city

All behind the petrol station has been designated an opportunity site by the council and the old gas works at the waterside are two prime locations off the top of my head.

Id barely walk past O Connell St at night never mind Gratten Quay or Bilberry.

Marchandire

Lets not get carried away here people. Have a look on Daft.ie - a one bed apartment in the city centre costs less than 60,000 euro now. The census is expected to reveal an enormous amount of empty apartments in the city. Property prices are down 65% officially, and in Waterford that can be seen in real prices too.

We have oodles of empty retail space: in station house, on the cork road, not to mention the numerous small shop spaces empty in the city centre. Nama owned hotels are killing the hotel trade, with over-capacity everywhere.

This development seems like a pipe dream to me. You can argue that it will be worthwhile in a few years, when the economy picks up. However, with the mismanagement of the crisis and our colossal debts (not to mention our local unemployment rates), local and national recovery won't reach to stage where this kind of Celtic Tiger style development is warranted for many years. The cheap credit bonanza is over and I just don't see how Waterford can support it.

I suspect this site will be undeveloped for many years after the demolition is finished.

merlante

Marchandire wrote: »

Lets not get carried away here people. Have a look on Daft.ie - a one bed apartment in the city centre costs less than 60,000 euro now. The census is expected to reveal an enormous amount of empty apartments in the city. Property prices are down 65% officially, and in Waterford that can be seen in real prices too.

We have oodles of empty retail space: in station house, on the cork road, not to mention the numerous small shop spaces empty in the city centre.

Great news! Anyone who has had to live in overpriced kips in places like Dublin at a time (mid-90's) when there was a chronic undersupply of apartments would surely like to see the shoe on the other foot.

We will find out in the census, but there appears to be enough demand for apartments to hold rents at a low but steady level. I hear on the grapevine that in areas on the city which have a lot of apartments, the vacancy rates are only 1 in 5 or 6. Apartments may be vacant for many reasons, not necessarily to do with the market.

The availability of small scale retail space on the Quay and in other parts of the city have seen a boon in the amount of businesses starting up. Many of them don't last long, but it is very encouraging to see "ordinary people" trying their hand at a business. One of the big problems with Waterford was the reluctance of all but a select few to get into business. With Waterford's expansion in the suburbs, foot fall in the city has reduced dramatically, to the point where the commercial core of the city is, for the moment, probably too large to be sustained by the current level of commercial activity. (Shame that the Newgate centre would have changed this completely imho.)

It would be fantastic to see, like in many cities around Europe, a plethora of small, local businesses setting up on a shoestring. Vibrancy follows shortly afterwards.

My view is if this development goes ahead a few positive things could happen:
i) a derelict site will be cleared
ii) something nice might be built in its place, which at the worst, won't be derelict itself for years
iii) Waterford could (apparently) have a conference centre -- which is still really important from a number of points of view.

People should put aside their prejudices of certain sectors of the city. Things change. O'Connell st. itself is 10 times the street it was in 1990. The whole area has been rendered habitable again, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it becomes the cultural centre of the city in years to come.

Waterford has a shortage of space in the city centre, which is one of the reasons Bilberry has been designated as a high potential site, and why planning has been granted. It can be linked up to the city centre by sensitive development of the road and the whole area.

Green Hornet

They've done some job of knocking it down. Apparently the original plans are scaled down significantly? Nice bit of space there. It's almost a pity to see more buildings going in there.

Green Hornet

Bringing up an old thread here but it looks like the plans have been scaled back significantly - the towers and auditorium were refused permission. The height and scale for everything else was also scaled back significantly.

The details can be found on An Bord Pleanala.

At least it's been cleaned off anyway. Wonder if anything will be done with it at all now.......

Professey Chin

I liked that tower

Godsentme

I'm so glad its been cleaned up. It was a shameful first view of the city coming in on a train. And the Ships graveyard below it is being cleaned up. Theres a Marina being built there.

Green Hornet

Yeah, it's some improvement - almost a pity that it cant be converted into a park or something. It would be nice by the river.

I doubt that the developer will spend a heap of money developing it in the scaled down version. Especially when the "iconic" aspects have been refused permission. IMO they were outlandish anyway and not appropriate in terms of scale and height to the area.

Godsentme

We'll see. IMO the ideal untapped location for a park would be from Mount misery to the ard ri site. if you were ever up there it's a fabulous spot with fantastic views up and down the river and the city. We could have a cable car going over to it from Ballybricken. Serious.

Trick of the Tail

I wonder if the demolition work uncovered any signs of the former Waterford South railway station.

A.

dayshah

Godsentme wrote: »

We could have a cable car going over to it from Ballybricken. Serious.

I used to think that idea was nuts, but not after seeing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Rt4skX878

For a new park I would prefer somewhere closer to where the houses are, like Maypark.

The park at the dump should be good too.

chelloveks

Godsentme wrote: »

We'll see. IMO the ideal untapped location for a park would be from Mount misery to the ard ri site. if you were ever up there it's a fabulous spot with fantastic views up and down the river and the city. We could have a cable car going over to it from Ballybricken. Serious.

Put that cable car from Ballybricken to Tramore and we're talkin!!!!

fuzzy dunlop

Green Hornet wrote: »

Bringing up an old thread here but it looks like the plans have been scaled back significantly - the towers and auditorium were refused permission. The height and scale for everything else was also scaled back significantly.

The details can be found on An Bord Pleanala.

At least it's been cleaned off anyway. Wonder if anything will be done with it at all now.......

From what I could see on the ABP website the two largest towers were refused but permission was granted to parts of the complex that include buildings of eight and eleven stories.This is significant in itself as they would probably be the tallest buildings in Waterford. The option is still open to resubmit a revised plan for the towers so who knows? It looks like Ireland is slowly getting over it's neurosis about high rise buildings.

Finnbar01

FFS, another cargo cult pipe dream. :rolleyes:

Green Hornet

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

From what I could see on the ABP website the two largest towers were refused

The 500 seat auditorium is gone as well.

dayshah

Green Hornet wrote: »

The 500 seat auditorium is gone as well.

If we need an auditorium/conference centre, maybe the old cinema on Patrick St could be converted?

fuzzy dunlop

Green Hornet wrote: »

The 500 seat auditorium is gone as well.

This is unfortunate as their is only three places near the city centre probably suitable for this type of venue one of which is Bilberry the others being the North Quays and possibly Graves dock near Park Road. Cute perjoratives like "cargo cult" aside there is a good opportunity here.Trade shows and professional and political conventions seldom make it past Kilkenny.If they do they are held in WIT or Faitlegge which is no good as they do not showcase the city properly nor does the city benefit from the business spin off.

comeraghs

I think the idea of a park up on mount misery is a wonderful idea! & maybe with a landmark sculpture!

Waterford has so much potential is we could only get everybody singing from the one hymn sheet!

Godsentme

What better sculpture than ThreeTall Ships? Big mind you.

That and the Cable car and the Park, and we'd have 'em flocking in. I'm sure of it.

And while we're at it, - A big recycling Waterfall down the cliff facing the bridge.






I started a thread about a monument on Mt Misery a while ago. Its back there somewhere..

angry_fox

Heard from a few people living in the area that the the old Waterford Stanley place is now going to be used as a temporary halting site, the reason for this is the council are going to be doing up the halting site in bilberry and they have no where else to put the families.

I will give the council a ring on Tuesday to see if its true but if it is........

roco71

angry_fox wrote: »

Heard from a few people living in the area that the the old Waterford Stanley place is now going to be used as a temporary halting site, the reason for this is the council are going to be doing up the halting site in bilberry and they have no where else to put the families.

I will give the council a ring on Tuesday to see if its true but if it is........

Wonderful first impression of our city now, I think a halting site will look much more appealing to the eye and the visitor than a conference centre or a high rise building.

angry_fox

looks like it is going to be used as "temporary" halting site. They don't know how long it will take for the other site to be fixed up. Now the local residence are up in arms over this but an area that big what is to stop more travellers from moving in??

Brick Session

angry_fox wrote: »

looks like it is going to be used as "temporary" halting site. They don't know how long it will take for the other site to be fixed up. Now the local residence are up in arms over this but an area that big what is to stop more travellers from moving in??

"temporary" I wonder how long that piece of string will be?